Mission & Justice

Rana Husseini; 4/11/08

A 22-year-old man on Monday allegedly confessed, in front of Criminal Prosecutor Ahmad Omari, to sexually assaulting and murdering his nine-year-old half-sister according to official sources. The victim, identified as H. M., was found stuffed in a bag and dumped in a deserted area in the town of Jiza close to Queen Alia International Airport, Police Spokesperson Major Mohammad Khatib told The Jordan Times. The girl’s family, who had reported her missing, immediately identified the body, he added. “Suspicions are centred on one of her brothers who reportedly confessed and reenacted the crime in front of investigators,” a second source said

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8/10/08

The tough times had forced people to commit a staggering 31,000 crimes, including children and young women who were forced into prostitution, according to the Lae MP and Deputy Opposition leader Bart Philemon. The crime figures obtained from police were for a five-year period – 2002 to 2007. Mr Philemon also collected health and education figures to show a picture of the sick and ailing Papua New Guinea. He said children and young mothers were suffering as shown by the high maternal mortality rates and the “shocking” infant mortality rates and the death of children less than five years of age. “IF you still think this is not a problem, talk to Tessie Soi of Friends Foundation. Annually, they have two to three mass burials of these innocent children and she will tell you how they struggle for donations to purchase little coffins to bury the tiny innocent still born babies abandoned in city morgues,” he said.

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Paul Toohey; 5/9/08

The principal lawyer for the Northern Territory’s peak Aboriginal legal aid service says his organisation is dealing with an unprecedented number of murder cases, which he links to failures of the federal intervention. Glen Dooley said the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency had eight clients facing murder charges after a run of killings that started in April. “We can say that in the 15 months of the intervention that we’ve now got unprecedented levels of killing,” Mr Dooley said. “This shocks me. We’d normally pick up six killings a year. At this rate, we’ll pick up 20.

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Nurit Wurgaft; 1/9/08

The murder of a child almost always makes the entire country skip a heartbeat, especially if news of the death is preceded by the child’s disappearance and extensive searches. During the past 30 years dozens of children have disappeared or been murdered in Israel. Many of these cases remain unsolved to this day.

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